Mobile access networks are often designed as cellular networks that comprise of plurality of Base Stations (BS) connected together by means of switching nodes such as Base Station Controllers (BSC) and or Mobile Switching Centers (MSC). Further, each base station provides coverage over an area known as a cell. When a communicating mobile device moves out of the coverage area of such a cell the radio resources of that cell are no longer available for the mobile device. In such a scenario, the mobile device switches its connection to another cell whose resources are available for communication by means of handover or handoff. Another cell may belong to a different network operator who may have an agreement with the mobile device's present operator. The new operator may be providing services in areas where the service of the present operator are not available. This scenario is seen in roaming, wherein when a mobile device enters into another area where his network does not provide coverage then the mobile device is handed off to the new operator. This happens mainly because each network operator is provided certain limited radio frequency spectrum and when the mobile device moves out of the coverage provided by this spectrum switching becomes essential.
Further, with emerging trends in mobile data world, mobile data is exploding at a rapid rate. With increase in the mobile data the density of mobile traffic is also increasing. As a result, there may be a case wherein the user experience may not be favorable with a particular network X as the density of traffic on network X may be huge. The user may want to access a service that requires higher data rates such as video call, downloads and so on; in such a case the present network X cannot support service requirements of the user. Trying to access such a service with network X will result in poor user experience. As a result, a service model that can service the users based on his application/service requirements is the need of the hour.
In present day mechanisms switching between the networks happen only when one network is no longer available completely in that particular area of coverage. This means switching happens as per the choice of the network operator or the network conditions, and the mobile device is moved to another operator's network only after handover at the previous operator. There do not exist mechanisms in order to aggregator the network services available and intimate the user on his mobile device. The mobile device user may prefer to switch from one available network to another when desired by him. There may be several reasons for performing the switching. One of the reasons could be better coverage of one network over the other at some places, pricing and the like. For example, there may be a possibility where a user finds operator X's network to be better than operator Y's at a particular place. In such a case, if the user wants to use a better network for a service such as placing a video call and so on; existing systems have no means for the user to switch from network X to network Y. There is no flexibility provided to the user to switch between operators' of his choice based on the network condition and perform handover as per the mobile user's choice.
Further, dual-SIM phones have become extremely popular in the present day market. Due to this, the interesting trend is that users are demanding greater degree of choice in choosing their operators at one timescales. This allows users to switch between operators based on signal quality and price plans as per their requirements. In today's network deployment interesting aspect is that different operators deploy their networks to optimize different performance metrics. This means that depending on location and application requirements, the user choice of best operator could be different.
In addition, the requirements of static users are different from that of mobile users. For example, one cannot assume that the technique that works for static users will work for mobile users. Static users might wish to run a video streaming application over a Femto eNodeB, but on the other hand, a mobile user could experience better performance from a macro enodeB. As a result, the radio resource requirements may be different based on the type of user.
Due to aforementioned reasons it is evident that if users have choice, they can potentially reap the benefits of this diversity in operator deployments and enjoy a better user experience.